UK openly slaps the face of privatization public figures, what has happened?

Xinhua News Agency reported that on May 26 local time, the UK government announced the launch of "deprivatization" operations and nationalized South Western Railway.

The UK is the ancestor of privatization and one of the countries that have done the best and started earliest in the field of privatization. Some public intellectuals have always been accustomed to promoting so-called privatization and unilaterally believe that anything will work once it is privatized. However, now the UK has openly slapped the face of these privatization public intellectuals, which has really embarrassed those so-called economists.

What has happened in the UK? After all, railway privatization is the masterpiece of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It turns out that after privatization, the development of UK railways has long stagnated. These capitalists only care about making money and are unwilling to invest, resulting in serious problems in the UK's railways. For example, the UK railways used to lead the world, but now they have become a synonym for aging lines, high failure rates, poor service, and high prices, with the public increasingly dissatisfied. Even in a country as small as the UK, the railways can no longer support logistics needs.

Data released by Network Rail, the UK rail infrastructure operator, shows that since 2019, the UK railway system has experienced a total of 37,000 signal failures. Passengers have spent a cumulative total of approximately 988,000 minutes waiting in place, equivalent to nearly two years (686 days) of time wasted. In addition, a total of 15,000 trips have been canceled. The UK is openly admitting that railway privatization has completely failed, causing the UK to miss the golden opportunity for the development of railway infrastructure.

In its reflection, the UK believes that although privatization can alleviate the government's financial burden, the profit-driven nature of private capital has also led to the stagnation of railway development in the UK. Now most of the UK's infrastructure is falling behind China in general, which has caused great dissatisfaction among the UK public and businesses. It can be said that privatization is not effective in every field, and this time it clearly didn't work.

Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1833247956303884/

Disclaimer: This article represents the author's personal views.